CONWAY, SC (WBTW)- Conway is facing historic flooding in the coming days. Horry County Police Chief Joseph Hill and Horry County Fire Rescue Chief Joseph talk about the county’s response.
People who live in Lee’s Landing are evacuating their homes in boats.
“I got about a foot of water inside my house, and I went to check on it today and opened the door and stuff just started coming out,” said Grayson Brewster.
Brewster said he’s expecting another three to four feet of water.
Horry County Police and Fire Chief said when planning they used Hurricane Matthew as a starting off point and added more resources.
“We’re doing the best we can. It’s historic. We hope our planning models work out and if we have too many resources here we can pull back,” said Horry County Police Chief Joseph Hill.
They have crews from across the country like Miami Dade County, Lousiana and Pennsylvania. They also have federal assets like the army national guard, military members, and a FEMA task force. Each team has 7 boats, plus 18 national guard high water vehicles. Horry County Police have their own MRAP for high water rescues. As flood waters are making it’s way to the roads, we asked if flooding could impact any precincts or fire stations.
“Some areas may be affected by the flooding so we’ll simply relocate those to another area. We’re not taking anything away. We’re adding to other stations, but also adding boat crews and helicopters to get where we need to go,” said Horry County Fire Rescue Chief Joseph Tanner.
Flood waters are starting to make it’s way to roads near the emergency operations center.
“All of our resources are at the precincts and fire stations around the county. There’s very little resources here except for command and control. And if we lose this building by chance we have a plan for that as well,” said Chief Tanner and Chief Hill.
Chief Hill and Chief Tanner have one message for people in Horry County.
“If you can get out. Get out. That’s the first thing. Stay off the roadways. Stay out of flooded waters. Don’t walk in flooded waters, and be very aware of your surroundings,” said Chief Tanner.
Horry County Police just put in a request for 100 additional law enforcement officers in anticipation for record setting flooding and shelter operations. Fire and Rescue also working to get more people in to relieve those first responders who have been working 36 hour shifts for the past week. Once flood waters recede, they still have a search and rescue mission and will go door to door to every community affected by flooding.